Thursday, September 20, 2007

Longstitch through a slotted cover

I use the "longstitch through a slotted cover" quite often. I wish it had a better name, but "longstitch" is too general, so I'm just using the title that Keith Smith has given it (p. 141, Vol 1 Non Adhesive Binding). This binding works really well with most leather and I really like how it looks with the staggered lines and it is such a stable, secure, strong binding.

After doing a million of these books, I made a fantastic discovery. After making the holes in my sections, absentmindedly I also made holes in the cover...rather than slots. After just a little consideration, about three seconds, I decided to try it anyway. So I used the same sewing process, just going through holes rather than slots. And, I sewed two sections through each row of holes. I know it looks the same at first glance, but it creates (nearly) straight lines on the spine. Of course, you say, that is simple enough. But I was amazed, astounded, aghast. Now this clean, strong binding that I love so much, is also symmetrical! This picture shows the book sewn through holes (top) and another one sewn through slots.

I suppose I haven't truly discovered anything; I'm sure somebody has done this before me. Actually, I just went back to Smith's book and he does make a brief mention of doing this binding with pierced sewing stations. He doesn't elaborate that suggestion at all, but I suppose this is what he was talking about.

So that was my most recent bookbinding discovery and I love it, I must do some more of these. This binding isn't great with really soft leather because the slots tend to get distorted, but using the pierced sewing stations would probably work very well. Off to try another one...

8 comments:

Beautiful! I love those happy accidents that reveal things we would never have thought of otherwise. Its what creativity is all about I think, having the guts to go with something even though it may seem 'wrong', just going with the flow and discovering the unexpected. I love your books, and thank you for sharing this insight!

Oh my wow golly -!! I never ever thought of doing it that way and using the holes instead of the slots!! I learned this binding from susan mills a while ago and just have loved making books that way!Thanks for this very very useful tip!